Cure for Oscar aggression...Red LED Light????

[FINWIN]

Maybe, but I'm thinking the additional fish will give them something to focus on besides each other. One peculiar thing is that they mostly squabble when I'm around the tank. If I'm out of the room or observing from a distance they're in their own 'territory' with no problems. I've yet to figure out what that's all about.

Severums will stand up to an Oscar and the Syno won't be seen as a threat. The parrot is the wildcard but he generally won't mix it up unless another fish starts a fight. Its one of the reasons Boss is in the tank with Brick because my other two parrots are hyper aggressive and the female has sharp teeth. Boss is the 'mellow' one of the lot. Since my O is a 'teenager' I'm seeing him go through a nutter phase that he should outgrow in the next few months. The tank has a 'jungle scape' theme. Boss (parrot) has the left side, Brick (oscar) has the right side. They will both eat on Brick's side of the tank.

 

[jaws7777]

Adding more fish may definitely help. 225 isnt a huge tank. I thought my 300 was monstrous when i 1st got it. Still not big enough imo. Squabbling still happens but much less than when they were in the smaller 150. I never had luck with the whole adding fish to spread out the aggression with sa/ca. Ive always had a hierarchy form and the guy at the bottom of the totem pole gets the short end of the stick. It does work with other fish like bichirs and plecos at least for me

 

[FINWIN]

The opening line of your post indicates the aggression is a concern. You even said it gets out of hands at times. Just because the fish are eating and have color doesnt mean the aggression is a stress factor. Maybe it isnt a big deal but your own words may lead others to think otherwise. You also said he didnt react when you tapped on the glass. Again telling me his lack of site had anything to do with his behavior. The fish wasnt blinded he was scared.

I'm not going to debate the point. We have to agree to disagree here. And since I see the fish on a daily basis I can tell you again they each have their own area to get away. The missing scale incidents were three weeks apart and only happened once for each fish One singular scale, that's it. And one flew off a fish that had nothing to do with fighting, I saw it when the fish was swimming. They can go hours on end without dealing with each other. As I just posted, other fish will be added to give them focus on something besides each other. I originally had three parrots and the oscar in the 225 but due to aggression and fighting the others are in separate tanks. I have tried multiple combinations for months to find a satisfactory result. The current setup is the most peaceful due to personality. It isn't perfect but workable.

Three parrots (Boss, Patch, Kong)
Oscar (Brick)

Here are the combinations and results. I posted this elsewhere.

All of the fish were fine for ten days (december) until the pecking order happened. Brick was tiny (2") not a factor. All the parrots are large. The largest and most dominant male Kong tried to take over. Eventually won out over Boss and terrorized him. Kong then went after the female parrot (same size), Patch and tried to dominate her. She shredded his lips and busted his snout overnight with her teeth. Then she bruised up the other male parrot Boss because he wasn't dominant enough. So she went into a separate tank. She laid eggs in the 225 and ruled the whole tank with hyper aggression. Both males were backed in the corner. Brick got banged around like a pinball and developed ich soon after.

The parrots are jumbo sized and they tend to get more aggressive when older I hear.

So she's in her own tank permanently. I recently tried to return Kong (biggest male) to the 225 to see if the aggression would be 'spread out' as people often say. Brick had grown larger by this time, about 5 inches. Disaster. Kong went to rule the tank like he never left. Swam the tank twice, chased Boss out of his pot then proceeded to slam Brick into the glass despite Brick trying to fight back. Seconds later he knocked Brick above the water line. So I grabbed him quick and tossed him back into his tank where he will also be permanently. This was truly an incident that could have gotten fish killed.

As I look across at the fishroom I see the two swimming together fine. For whatever reason they go into stupid mode when I'm around the tank. I've yet to figure out why.

I always look for solutions regardless. They don't always work but the effort is there.

 

[Warborg]

Back in the 90's I was told to use red light at night for my plecos because they think it's still dark(I never tried it though).

 

[FINWIN]

I think it may be like a black hole effect, but...

Scratch the whole theory about the red light on oscars...@ Jaws7777 you were correct. Apparently Brick can see in the red light and is no longer spooked by it. He adjusted quickly. So I was wrong. Like I said, I'm not a scientist. But something about red definitely bugs them, including red clothing.

It slows him down for sure. A family member decided to test it out (I asked them not to). Here's what happened this time around:

Headknocker. Brick and Boss locked up. Boss settled in Brick's territory and wouldn't leave this time. Brick has the mass, Boss the bulk and power edge. He literally pushed Brick backwards which I hadn't seen before. Kept doing it until Brick was like "No Mas." and swam away.

So don't try this at home, kiddies...bum idea.

Regular light on. They're fine once again. No injuries. Cichlids gonna cichlid...

 

[jaws7777]

Lol they always find ways to thwart our plans

 

[bobblehead27]

The only reason I believe the fish couldn't see is because he couldn't face any object directly with vision. Almost like someone throwing a black hood over your head. There was no response to any motion directly in front of his eyes.

I'm the most anti stress fishkeeper you'll ever meet. The parrot and oscar have been in the tank since december. In all that time there was one incident each of a loose scale. They each hold their own. As long as no one is getting injured I'm not overly concerned but I do monitor at times. At night they swim like the best of friends then its back to the foolishness when the lights are on. It isn't constant only sporadic. Everyone eats fine, has color and nobody is intimidated. At times I think they're just messing around out of boredom.

I went online and researched that some fish don't perceive aspects of the spectrum like others. Deep water fish don't appear to see red and there are lots of red deep water in the trenches (like camoflauge). Fish from filtered dim light prefer green and blue wavelengths. Fish from shallow and high sunlight/uv/ high contrast seem to prefer a full color spectrum. I had to do some digging to get information, there isn't a ton of study on this for captive fish.

All that being said as I commented the red light is butt ugly...other than blending for custom led settings. Maybe some folk like the christmas light weirdness but I only use the spectrum colors to imitate natural light situations. I have one setting 'predawn' that has muted yellow/magenta tone. Full light is muted white. Sunset is muted magenta/orange. Evening/night is a dark blue moonlight color where you can barely see broken shadows. It's more natural than the solid blue setting which looks kind of artificial and neon.

Yeah red light doesn't travel as far through the water as other colors such as blue and green. If you ever get the chance to go on a submarine with Windows, wear red. It's crazy how you slowly lose your ability to see red. That's why certain bioluminescent deep sea fish have red lamps. Most fish down there have lost their ability to see red light, so the red lamps are invisible to them, but not to the bioluminescent fish. It's basically night vision for them. It's crazy.

 

[EntoStentor]

Yeah red light doesn't travel as far through the water as other colors such as blue and green. If you ever get the chance to go on a submarine with Windows, wear red. It's crazy how you slowly lose your ability to see red. That's why certain bioluminescent deep sea fish have red lamps. Most fish down there have lost their ability to see red light, so the red lamps are invisible to them, but not to the bioluminescent fish. It's basically night vision for them. It's crazy.

Loosejaws, to be more precise.

 

[A201]

For what its worth guys, over the years I've found it much easier to catch a fish using a red net, rather than a green or blue one.

 

[incredibleMrLimpet]

Its not that he cant see its a reaction to stress. For whatever reason the red lighting is causing a reaction. My pearsei reacts this way to blue light. He absolutely stresses out. Ive done this to stop him from eating most of the pellets and let the bichirs get their fill. If one side of the tank is blue he retreats to the other side. Its not something id make a habit of. If they can get along you may have to accept it and separate them. I dont think its fair to the fish to use this method on a regular basis. Ive completely stopped doing it.


What sized tank ?